Today we will see how to serve a beer in order to get the minimum amount of foam possible.

I have to say that in general, getting the minimum amount of foam is not the correct way to serve any beer, in deed different beers require different methods and glasses for serving it, but beer with too much foam it is a recurring problem in people that buys a beer mini keg for the first time and therefore we need to address it.

I repeat: This is not a guide to throwing a perfect beer with perfect foam. This is a guide to serve a beer with the minimum amount of foam.

A lot of people who buy a mini beer keg for the first time has a bad experience with it because they get too much foam in their beers.

This has happened to us all, but there are ways to minimize the amount of foam that we get from the mini keg.

There are two reasons why too much foam might be obtained from a beer tap. The first is that the mini keg might have too much pressure, the second is that we are serving the beer wrongly and therefore generating excessive foam.

I will soon write a second article to address the issue of serving a beer with little foam, but today we will talk about how to care for the barrel so it arrives in perfect condition.

It is possible to obtain too much foam because the mini keg having more pressure than adequate. Unless we are using it with an external pressurization system, it is very rare to have excess pressure because a manufacturing problem for Beertender and Perfect Draft kegs and this is almost impossible for the party type kegs.

Most often, the excess pressure is due to have shaken the keg recently before serving the beer.

To avoid this, it is better to take some precautions.

– Try to cool the mini keg upright. Either in the refrigerator or using ice, it is best to let it cool in the position where it will be used. This will avoid having to flip it right out of the fridge.

– Try to cool it near where it will be consumed. The idea is to minimize the time that we will be moving so we reduce the shaking time during the trip.

– When you move treat it as if it was a bomb. Beertender and Perfect Draft mini beer kegs have handles to grab, these handles ask you to carry a keg of beer in each hand demonstrating that you can carry 5 or 6 kilos of weight in each hand. This is a bad idea, it’s best to embrace a single keg with both arms and transport it as vertical as possible minimizing shaking it as much as possible.

– Allow the keg to rest for a while before pulling the first beers. Just leave where it is going to be consumed and let it sit for a while before start serving beers. How long is “a while”?, simply acts with a little forethought, if you are going to use to have lunch at 1 P.M, Just try to have the keg in the cane half an hour before. Just try to leave it in the keg hollow of your tapping system so it heats the minimum possible.

Here you have the complete list of available beertender kegs that you can find in the market. Heineken business group does not offers their kegs to breweries not belonging to the group, so you will be only able to find Heineken group brand beers in Beertender kegs. In any case, it is possible that in the future the list of available brands growth.

If you find any missing brand of beer that could be found in Beertender kegs, please let us know though a comment and we will add it to the list as soon as possible.

Becks offers mini beer kegs in party and Perfect draft format. Those barrels are 5 liter unpressurized keg and 6 liter pressurized keg respectively. These formats are the ones in which InBev business group breweries offers their beers in kegs.

Being an unpressurized keg, the party keg operates by gravity, therefore it has a spigot at the bottom of the keg and an air inlet in the upper size. Beer arises from the lower spigot and therefore the keg doesn’t need any external tap or tool.

Perfect Draft kegs are pressurized beer kegs, this means that they include a pressurized CO2 tank that allows the beer to arise through a valve at the top. This pressurization allows the barrel to be connected to a beer tap with the appropriate connector (Compatible with Perfect Draft kegs).

Becks Premium Lager is a German beer of widespread consumption nationwide. The beer is also widely consumed worldwide, being, in fact, the German beer most consumed worldwide. Its main consuming countries are the UK, USA, Italy, Australia, Ukraine, Romania and Russia.

There is a large controversy regarding the quality and taste of this, it seems that the Becks beer is sold in different countries having been produced in different breweries using different recipes to suit local tastes.

In fact Becks has lost a trial in the United States for which he had to pay $ 50 to all Beck’s consumers that had a proof of purchase because the labeling of beer was misleading and seemed to offer a German beer when in fact the beer was produced in the United States in the same brewers than Bud beer.

Being a pressurized kegs implies that Perfect Draft kegs has a valve in the upper side for extracting the beer. This means that the keg can be used with a domestic beer tap assuming that it has a compatible connector.

In the moment of writing this lines this is the complete list of available Perfect Draft kegs. It is possible that this list growths in the future. If you know and Perfect Draft beer keg not listed here, please leave us a comment in this article.

Newcastle keg beer is offered in 5 liter pressurized kegs of BeerTender format. Beertender is the Heineken patented mini kegs, and therefore is the format in which all Heineken group beers are offered.

As stated in past articles, being a pressurized keg means that a specific connector is required for operating the keg. All Beertender kegs are sold with a plastic tap that is enough to serve the beer although is not the same experience than serving the beer using your own beer tap.

If you own a beer tap and want to use your Newcastle keg with it you must ensure that your beer tap is compatible with Beertender kegs.

If you want to know more about the characteristics of pressurized and unpressurized beer barrels (Kegs and casks) please visit this link. To learn more about Heineken Beertender kegs and about other keg formats available you can visit this other link.

Newcastle only offers its flagship beer in keg format, this is the Newcastle Brown Ale. This beer, which became the most widely distributed alcoholic beverage in England during the 80s, was created after 3 years of development by Jim Porter in 1927.

Beerminikeg.com specializes in everything related to domestic beer kegs, ie beer kegs from 5 to 6 liters. Almost all barrels within this range fall within “party”, “Beertender” and “Perfect Draft” types.

Knowing the type of mini keg that you are acquiring is important to know whether the keg is compatible with our beer tap and to know what is the right method to get rid of it once you have consumed the content.

It is important to know that very few shops are aware of any kind of keg classification, so even if you ask in a specialized establishment, you may get any useful guidance about which kegs are of a particular type, so it’s better to have a clear idea about this before reaching the shop.

When buying a beer tap is important to check that it is compatible with the type of kegs we want to use it with.

Party mini kegs.

These barrels are the easiest option when buying a beer keg since they require no outside elements for working. Fiesta kegs have a spigot at the bottom of the keg and a valve for the air inlet at the top. Beer arises from the bottom tap due to gravity and therefore it does not require gas or any outside tool or tap for operation.

The counterpart of these barrels is that the absence of pressure inside the keg allows the diluted gas to quickly scape, which means these barrels must be consumed quickly once opened (throughout the day) or you’ll lose much of its foam.

These 6 liter kegs follows the “perfect draft” standard, which means they have a valve at the top for the output of beer and therefore you will need a beer tap with a compatible connector to operate it.

Perfect darft kegs are pressurized kegs, which means they do not need an injection of external gas for it to work.

Leffe offers a wide range of beers types in mini keg format. This range includes the Leffe Blond, Leffe Bruin and Leffe Ruby. All of them are abbey style beer.

Leffe Blond variety beer is a Belgian pale ale beer, it has a soft golden color and introduces hints of vanilla and cloves aromas, this beer tastes as expected for a typical abbey beer. It reaches an alcohol content of 6.6 degrees.

On the other hand, Leffe Bruin, has only 6.5 degrees of alcohol content and is a dark Belgian ale. It has a deep brown color and has the slightly caramelized taste of traditional Belgian abbey beer. This beer has aromas of spice and caramel mainly.

Even though alcohol graduation is slightly lower than Leffe Blond, Leffe Bruin beer is denser in the mouth so apparently it is heavier that his blond sister. This means that Leffe Blond is usually easier to drink specially for people not used to strong tasting beers.

Finally Leffe Ruby variety is a gamble for Leffe brand. This beer is macerated with berries in order to achieve an elegant beer suited for special occasions. The obtained beer is quite sweet and of amber color, logically, the dominant aromas and tastes for these beer are those typical of berries. The beer has a graduation of 5 degrees, which makes it the lowest alcohol graduation for Leffe mini keg beer selection.

This means that the keg is equipped with a valve on top of the barrel to be connected to a beer tap with the appropriate connector. The beer will then raise to the dispenser due to the pressure of the pressurized gas.

Affligen mainly sells three types of beer: blonde, double, or triple. They are all abbey beer following Belgian quality standards.

At present days this type of beer is produced in industrial facilities outside of abbeys, however, according to Belgian law, brewers who want to make an abbey type beer must follow strict manufacturing standards. Also if they want to use a monastery name as brand for their beer, they must license the use of the beer recipe of the monastery and pay royalties the right to use it.